Stop 30 of 50

The railway arrives

Finland got its first railway in 1862, but Turku had to wait fourteen years while its trade drained away to Helsinki and Vyborg. On 22 June 1876 trains finally began to run from Turku to Toijala, and with them came a new problem: the clocks of different towns did not agree.

Industrial age · Grand Duchy

The big story

The railway arrives

In the 1860s the steam train changed the map of trade in Finland, and Turku was not on it. For fourteen years the old port watched goods travel by rail to Helsinki and Vyborg instead. In 1876 the town finally got its own line, a station and railway workshops on its northern edge.

Left off the map

The first line. Finland’s first railway opened on 31 January 1862. It ran 96 kilometres from Helsinki to Hämeenlinna Well documented.
Towards the empire. In 1870 a 371-kilometre line from Riihimäki to St Petersburg was completed, linking the Grand Duchy to the capital of the Russian Empire Well documented.
Turku loses trade. The Helsinki railway and the Saimaa Canal pulled trade towards Helsinki and Vyborg. Between 1860 and 1875 Turku’s share of Finland’s foreign trade fell from 18 to 8 percent Well documented.
Getting ready. In 1875, before a single train had arrived, the town council decided to build a new quay by the canal, expecting the railway. Steamships already carried nearly two-thirds of the port’s goods Well documented.

Building the line

Work begins. Construction of the line from Toijala to Turku and Turku harbour began in 1874 Well documented.
A state railway. Like the other early Finnish lines, it was planned and paid for by the state. The railway board chose the surveyor H. Wahlroos to plan the railway area in Turku, and the engineer Hugo Neuman led the construction. The town gave the land and agreed to pull down buildings that stood in the way Well documented.
Why Toijala? People in Turku wanted the line to meet the main railway as far north as possible, so that the trip from Turku to Tampere would be short. Toijala was the compromise Well documented.
Russian width. The line was 131 kilometres long and single-track. It used the broad gauge of 1,524 millimetres, the same as the main lines in Finland and Russia, so wagons could roll all the way to St Petersburg Well documented.

22 June 1876

Opening day. On 22 June 1876 the Turku–Toijala line opened. On the same day the line from Hämeenlinna to Tampere also opened, and the two met at Toijala Well documented.
Trains to the ships. The next day, 23 June, the harbour line was opened too. Its terminus lay between Turku Castle and the mouth of the Aura, so goods could move straight from wagons to ships Well documented.
A royal guest? One source says that the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander III, attended the opening ceremony. We have not found this confirmed elsewhere Debated.
Only one direction. At first trains from Turku ran only towards Toijala and Tampere, and down to the harbour Well documented.

Station and workshops

The first station. The first station building was designed by the architect P. E. Degenaer. It had two storeys and was built in the neo-Renaissance style, at the northern edge of Engel’s town plan (stop 28) Well documented.
Three classes. On the ground floor there were waiting rooms for first, second and third class, a ladies’ room, ticket and baggage halls and offices for the telegraph and the post. Railway staff lived upstairs Well documented.
The workshops. Railway workshops were built in 1875–1876. They became one of the five main workshops of the state railways and worked until 2003. In 2011 the old halls opened again as Logomo, a centre for culture and events Well documented.
A new station. The old station was pulled down in 1938, partly because it was thought too old-fashioned for visitors to the planned Olympic Games of 1940. The present station, by Väinö Vähäkallio and Martti Välikangas, was completed in 1940 Well documented.

The long way to Helsinki

Round the corner. For more than twenty years a train trip from Turku to Helsinki went the long way round, via Toijala and Hämeenlinna Well documented.
The coastal line. In 1895 it was decided to build a line along the coast. Turku–Karjaa opened in 1899, Karjaa–Pasila in 1902, and the whole coastal line was in use in September 1903 Well documented.
Station to centre. From 1908 trams linked the station to the Cathedral and the Market Square (stop 33) Well documented.

How do we know?

The best source is a report on the Turku railway yard written for the city in 2017. It uses the archives of the state railways and gives the exact opening dates. Some details differ between sources. One overview says the station opened in 1862, which confuses it with Finland’s first line. Sources also disagree on how big the first engine shed was.

Turku’s share of Finland’s foreign trade

186018 %

18758 %

Before Turku had a railway.

How the railway reached Turku, 1862–1903. Step through the years.Lines are drawn schematically between the towns they served.

Why it matters

The railway did not make Turku Finland’s first city again, but it ended fourteen years of isolation. Raw materials, grain and people could now come by train, and goods could leave both by rail and by sea. In the following decades factories and shipyards grew along the Aura (stop 31), and Turku’s harbour became a meeting point of rails and ships.

On the lighter side

Railway time: when clocks had to agree

Today your phone sets its own clock, and every clock in Finland shows the same time. In the 1800s this was not so. Each town kept its own time by the sun, and that worked well until trains began to run on timetables.

Time by the sun

Noon is local. In the old days noon was the moment when the sun stood highest in the sky. Every town had its own noon Well documented.
Four minutes a degree. The Earth turns one degree in four minutes. A town further east sees noon earlier, and a town further west sees it later Well documented.
Turku is late. Turku lies almost three degrees west of Helsinki, so the sun reaches its highest point almost 11 minutes later in Turku than in Helsinki. This is a calculation from the map, not a historical record Likely.
An even sun. The real sun is not a perfect clock: during the year it runs up to about a quarter of an hour fast or slow. Clocks therefore kept “mean time”, an average sun that is never early or late Well documented.

Helsinki time on the rails

The telegraph. The electric telegraph came to Finland in 1854. With it, a station could learn the exact time from far away Well documented.
One time for the trains. When the first railway opened in 1862, the timetables used Helsinki time, the mean time of the University Observatory in Helsinki. It was 1 hour, 39 minutes and 49.2 seconds ahead of Greenwich Well documented.
A ball and a cannon. Noon was signalled by dropping a ball down a mast. When rain hid the ball, a cannon was fired instead Well documented.
Far to the east. The St Petersburg line used Helsinki time as far as Kaipiainen, just east of Kouvola Well documented.
Turku joins in. When the railway reached Turku in 1876, the trains there ran on the same railway time. The station clock was then almost 11 minutes ahead of the sun in Turku Likely.

Who decides the time?

The emperor says no. In 1888 the Diet asked Emperor Alexander III to make Helsinki time the official time of the whole country. He answered that the railways’ standard time was enough Well documented.
Another no. In 1897 the government proposed Eastern European Time, two hours ahead of Greenwich. This time the Diet said no Well documented.
Walpurgis Night, 1921. After independence the Geographical Society proposed Eastern European Time again in 1919. A decree of 12 March 1920 made it official from 1 May 1921. At midnight on Walpurgis Night, 30 April 1921, all clocks were moved forward 20 minutes and 10.9 seconds Well documented.
Half an hour ahead. Since then, the clock in Turku runs about half an hour ahead of the sun. The sun stands highest at about half past twelve Well documented.

Summer time

A wartime test. Finland first tried summer time from 2 April to 4 October 1942 Well documented.
Back for good. Summer time returned in 1981 and has been used every summer since Well documented.
Lunch before noon. In summer the clocks are an hour further ahead, so in Turku the sun is highest only at about half past one. If you eat lunch at noon, the sun is still climbing Well documented.

Time by the sun in Turku

Tap a clock to set it to twelve o’clock.

Three clocks: the sun in Turku, Helsinki time and Finnish time. Move the slider, tap a clock, or step through the years.Sun time means mean solar time. The differences are calculated from longitude.

How do we know?

Decrees, the records of the Diet and the old timetables show when Finland changed its time. We have not found a record of what the town clocks and the station clock in Turku showed in 1876. The difference of almost 11 minutes is our own calculation from the longitudes of Turku and the Helsinki observatory.

Why it matters

The railway made exact time matter. A train that leaves at 8:00 has to leave at 8:00 by every clock along the line, or trains meet on a single track. The telegraph, the station clock and the timetable were the first steps towards the shared time we take for granted today.

Sources and further reading

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